Our Birth Story (Part One)

Well Parker is currently asleep and swinging away so I thought this would be the perfect time to finally share our birth story!

The week started out like any other. Went to work Monday morning, surprising everyone because I had been told at most of my appointments up to then that he would probably be coming "any day now". I guess he was just happy and content in there! On Tuesday, I started to get nervous about not being able to get home in time if I did go into labor at work. Hubby and I talked about it and decided that potentially Wednesday (the 23rd) would be my last day in the office UNLESS I was feeling absolutely fine...then I would just keep working. I was hoping Wednesday would be it because while I was still feeling fine and chugging along...I was starting to get uncomfortable.

Wednesday morning was like any other. Got ready, kissed the husband and the dogs, and went to work. I was sitting at my desk and at 10:10AM (yes I looked at the clock) I got my first "hmmm this is different" contraction. Nothing mind blowing or so painful I couldn't keep working, but it was different enough for me to take notice. Felt like a strong menstrual cramp. I of course still wasn't sure if "that was it" or if it was just another Braxton-Hicks contraction, but I called Hubby and texted my mom to let them know. Hubby said to just note the time and start keeping track of them. I kept working and at 11:15AM I got another one. A little stronger but still nothing that caused me great alarmed. I did find that walking down the hall to restroom helped but I wasn't sure that I needed to leave just yet and I'm sure people would start wondering why I was going to the bathroom so much!

Since it was potentially my last day in the office, the girls and I decided to "picnic" during lunch (we eat together in the conference room instead of alone...in isolation at our desks) and while I didn't say anything to them, I did take notice when I got another contraction around 12:00PM. This one was a little stronger. I had called the birth center by this point and they had said to just keep them updated but it didn't sound like I needed to come in quite yet. I was both relieved and disappointed. After we finished lunch, I went back to my office and called Hubby and told him that I was going to head home, just in case. I told the girls in the office, and my boss (who looked panicked that I was still sitting there...I think he was afraid my entire pregnancy that I was going to give birth in my desk chair) that I was going to go ahead and go home, so I finished up a few things and headed out around 1:00PM.

I called my mom and Hubby on the way home. Hubby was on his way to Wal-Mart to pick up a cooler to take the birth center (yeah...we probably should have purchased that before but oh well) and was going to meet me at home. Throughout both conversations, I started to get a few more contractions that were coming a little more frequently but nothing regular. I did have to stop talking a few times while driving so I could breath through them, and focus on not crashing. While the contractions were getting a little stronger, I still wasn't convinced that "this was it" because it wasn't completely awful.

I got home around 2:00PM and told Hubby to call the birth center. They typically want you to wait until the contractions are 5-1-1 (5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute, for 1 hour) until you come in, but since I had already been dilated (at a 4 at my last appointment) and we live about 45 minutes away (close to an hour or so with traffic) I didn't want to run out of time. They told us to go ahead and come on it, just in case, and Beverly our birth assistant told us to go ahead and hurry. I figured we still had time so Hubby loaded the car and called my mom while I jumped in the shower. He then hosed off and at 3:00PM, we pulled out of the driveway, just in time for me to get a fairly strong contraction. Shockingly enough I still wasn't nervous.

I went ahead and sent out my mass text to everyone that we were on our way, so all of the "good lucks" and "how exciting!" were good distractions as the contractions kept coming. We started to note the time and noticed that at this point they were coming about every 5 minutes. They started to get to the point where I needed to just close my eyes, grab Hubby's arm, and breath. This helped...A LOT. It wasn't constant pain, like I was being stabbed or something, it was just uncomfortable when I would get a contraction and back to normal between them.

As we got closer to the center, we hit traffic. Awesome. One of my fears. I didn't panic, just let Hubby handle it and before I knew it, at 4:00PM we were parking the car and headed inside. Beverly was there to meet us and took us into one of the birth rooms. She asked how things were going, noted when I had another contraction...and then another...and said that they were coming pretty close together. I continued to just breath through them but at this point, I did have to stop and lean over the bed to find a comfortable position until they passed. I said I wasn't sure this was it but was fairly certain and she said she would go ahead and check my progress to find out. Her eyes got a little bigger as she told me that I was dilated to between a 6 and a 7 and that we were not going home without a baby. She also said that she was fairly certain that we would have a baby before dinner time, specifically 6:00PM. I remember thinking...wow...okay, well that is in 2 hours...and that is when I got a little nervous.

To be continued...

An update...finally!

Judging by my "Punkin Tracker", our little one is slightly overdue...well actually...on June 23rd (4 days before his due date actually), Parker Ace Holladay made his entrance into the world!

I plan on documenting our birth story and my birth experience...just need to find the time to sit down and do it. I promise it will be come though, hopefully sooner than later.

In the meantime, know that we are doing well...so far sleeping well...and growing well and look for our story in the weeks to come!

Happy Baby!

Weekend Fun!

Hubby and I had a great weekend this past weekend! It wasn't too wild or crazy but we still had fun and got a lot done!

Saturday was nice because Hubby did not have to get up early and work like he usually does. I would love to say we slept in but 6:30 seems to be our new wake up time...not sure what to deal is?! Maybe our babies are getting ready for "the wee one"?!

I started laundry (since per Hubby's request, I only do it in the morning and evenings to try and keep the house cool) and made breakfast and I thought we were having some people over so I quickly cleaned up and vaccumed and straightened things up. They ended up not showing BUT it worked out that the house was cleaned up so I was done with that for the weekend! Score!

After a quick drop off of chemically stuff to the "Hazardous Waste Drop Off Day", we headed to Babies R Us to get my parents a Pack N Play for the kiddo. Mom is going to help us out with childcare for a bit so...he needed a place to sleep. Hubby and I then ran a few more errands, including grocery shopping (I love when I can sucker him in to going with me) and then we headed over to my parent's house (with the pups of course) for a fun afternoon of swimming! I totally rocked out a bikini (wearing shorts of course) with this huge 39 week pregnant belly. I wouldnt do it in front of anyone other than my husband and family of course but it was amusing regardless. Oddly enough I think I was more comfortable in a 2-piece pregnant than I am normally...my stomach has always been an issue...so that was pretty strange.

After a fun few hours of swimming, we headed home and cooked dinner. Shawn saw this yummy recipe for Moroccan Spiced Chickpea Soup on The Cooking Channel which is a new network with a lot of old shows from The Food Network that I L-O-V-E. Anyways...he wanted to give it a whirl so we did! It was different, yummy, but different. We added chicken too for extra protein.

After that I convinced him to go for Sno Cones and then it was off to slumbertown.

Tune in tomorrow for a Father's Day recap!

Happy Tuesday!

Whoa...M.I.A!

Wow...well umm...I have no excuses good enough for why I haven't blogged in approximately 45 days....geeze! Well anyways...quick catch up, at our midwife appointment LAST Friday (June 11th), I was told that I had progressed even further and she thought he would be coming THAT week. Maybe the potato salad lady was right?!

Well...no baby.

Went to our appointment this Friday (June 18th) and things hadn't changed drastically but he had dropped a little lower (JUST JUMP OUT KID!). Our next appointment is Wednesday so...we will see if anything happens before then OR if he comes prior to our appointment...fingers crossed!

I am definitely still nervous BUT I was given that light at the end of the tunnel so now I am getting to the "I'm ready" point. Typically it is more so by the end of the day when I feel like my skin is about to pop (for some reason it feels more stretched by then...) BUT I have still had a great experience and I will be a little sad to see it end.

I promise to keep you posted!

Happy Baby!

Maybe the crazy lady pitching potato salad was right...

Hubby and I spent this past weekend working it up around the house. This included a nice, stressful trip to CostCo.

CostCo + Saturday + Memorial Day Weekend = WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING!

We needed Gatorade and Baked Chips THAT bad apparently...

So as we are crusing down the dairy aisle, about to throw in a few cases of Gatorade, I hear "come try some potato salad and hot dogs" from this little old lady parked next to the butter. As I walk by, she swivels in her chair and says to me:
 "You'll have that baby in about 2 weeks."
 "Ha ha ha..." I nervously laughed, "well I am due in 4 actually."
 "Nope, I say 2...maybe 3 at the most."
 "Ha ha ha..." again...nervously. At this point I am not sure what one says in this situation. But then she threw in the kicker.
 "I went in to labor beating rugs." Which might sound crazy and random to most BUT that is actually how my Gram went into labor with my mom back in the day....ummm....SERIOUSLY?! Was Gram channeling me through this old woman and her potato salad?! Should I be worried that I was about to be struck by lightening or go into labor right then...OR should I just get my crap together because we were going to have a baby sooner than later?!

Well fast forward to our most recent midwife appointment on Tuesday. We met with Cherie, it was great. She was super nice and super positive. We got to hear the heartbeat, which was amazing as always. She commented on how I had no stretchmarks, which was exciting! Not bragging but seriously...I have been greasing this belly like an Easter ham so it was nice that my efforts have paid off. AND I do owe it to really awesome genes too...my mom has one teeny-weenie strectch that is only visable if you squint and look REALLY closely, which let's be honest would be weird for everyone involved. ANYWAYS...no stretchmarks...YAY...thanks mom!

So anyways...she did a few more things and pushed and proded my belly and told us that she thinks he is about 5 and a half pounds, and she wanted to feel if he had "dropped", which basically means he has made his descent into the canel of doom. I was slightly disappointed when she said he hadnt but then again, we still have 4 weeks to go and it doesnt always happen this early. But she kept going with the exam and then checked, just to see if there was any internal progression...if you know what I mean.

She then got a surprised look on her face and said..."well, actually...you are one cm dialated and 50%". (50% = 50% effaced...which...close your eyes if you arent interested...means that the cervix has thinned by 50%. We are looking for 100% at the time of labor people. 50% means HALF WAY THERE!)

WHAT?!

WHAT?!

Im sorry...back that ass up...

WHAT?!

Whoa lady...did NOT see that coming. What about him not making his descent? Well she kinda backed up and looked at me and said, "you know he might be dropped, you might just be carrying him in your back because of your height". I am not 100% sure what this means to be honest with you. If it explains the back pain then I vote yes but otherwsie...carrying him "in" my back is confusing BUT I am just going to go with it.

So that is that. I pretty much zoned out and didnt hear anything she said after that honestly but I did hear that while we might make it to my due date, she wouldnt be surprised if he came a bit early.

Wow...ummm...I need to go do stuff...like laundry and cleaning...and organizing...and go back and find the potato salad lady and ask for the lotto numbers...PRONTO!

Happy Baby!

Get to work Hubby!

Three days weekend rock my freakin' face off. We decided that this past weekend was going to be deemed "get shit stuff done because we are about to have a baby!" weekend.

A few weekends ago, although we had talked about it for awhile so it wasnt a complete out of the blue thing, Hubby decided to rip all of the bushes out near the back of our house. We hated them. The dogs loved to dig and get dirty in them, but we hated them.

We laid weed blocker in hopes that it would stop things from growing and then last weekend we eventually went and bought some grasses. Wispy ones. I love them.

So this past weekend, we finished it off by adding rocks!

It turned out EXACTLY how I wanted!

And while he busted his butt in the 150 degree heat...I washed these...

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? They are actually even smaller than they look here because I have what I affectionatly like to call..."man hands".

We did however find time to

have a small pool party at my parent's house. They were out of town and the dogs just LOVE swimming at Grammy and Grumps house!

We got a lot of things done and organized and I even had time to work on the baby's room a little bit.

This is the bookcase that Jamie gave us! Turned out super cute!

More pictures of the room to come, I promise...I am still just trying to figure out where the heck everything needs to go and I am trying to remember what everything is now that it is washed and out of the package...

Happy Baby!

Bradley Classes - Class Five!

Our final Bradley class was filled with information about what to do AFTER the baby gets here and how in the world to take care of this thing...okay not completely but we definitely discussed things like breast feeding, immunizations, circumcision (since everyone in the class was having a boy), and how to survive after your entire world has been flipped upside down.

One thing we decided on based on what our Bradley instructor told us is that we are going to wait about a week before we have any visitors or guests at the house. This will be hard, I already foresee it, but we know it is for the best.

Our Bradley instructor says mom should basically be in bed the first three days after giving birth. Even if you feel great, especially doing it naturally, you need to resist the temptation to get up and do "stuff". Laundry can wait, Hubby can cook, and everything will get taken care of. If you think about it, it makes sense, typically if you give birth in a hospital they keep you at least 48-36 hours anyways, so this rest time for us, will just be spent at home...in bed. (Theoretically)

Then she said for the next four days, mom can move from the bed into the living room on the couch but still doing nothing. The body has been through something fierce and different, if you give it a chance to recover and recoup, you will be all the better for it.

I am going to try this. Like I said, it will be hard. I will want to show him off, I will want to get stuff done, but I have to remember that people will be understanding (hopefully) and things will get done eventually.

We shall see.

Happy Resting!